Tarawa (CV 40) - Naval Cruise Book

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The BATTLE for Which the U S S TARAWA Was Named Before Novembcx 20 1943 the n unc of Tarawa was known to only a few Three days later that name and the name of Betio Bcach head went around the world like the flash from an exploding shell Today those names stand for the first sea borne assault on a defended atoll They will continue to endure as monuments of unsurpassed heroism of the Second Division remforced of the United States Marine Corps For all Americans Betio Beach head Tarawa takes its place beside such names as Concord Bridge and Belleau Wood where men died that democracy might live As one of his last acts as Commandant of the Marine Corps General Thomas Holcomb brought four men back to prepare an authentic story of the assault From memory from notes taken during the battle and from operational and intelligence reports at Marine Corps Headquarters these men pro duced a book entitled Betzo Beach head a clear accurate and vivid story of every step of the battle from the day plans were laid until the last shot was fired and the Stars and Stripes were raised over the torn battlefield The Marines responsible for this exceptional literature are Captain Earl Wilson now in Washing ton D C and Combat Correspondents MT! Sgt irn G Lucas later lst Lieut now with SCRIPPS HOWARD MTX Sgt Sam Shaffer now with NEWSWEEK and Sf Sgt C P Yurhnden Jr Cnow 2nd Lieutj who was wounded later at Iwo Jima. o 0 0 0 ,- - . Y I 9 a f C I , ' 31 - ' 0 9 ' C 9 1 I - c o , sk ' 7 n 9 j 0 9 ' 9 a , ' , ' cc ' - 79 -- J 7 7 R. 1 . J. , . - , - -, -J - ,C -D - , I 9 4 3 n o 1 JI , n In respectful memory of the valor of all who engaged in that heroic battle, condensations from the book are herein presented to you with the compliments of its authors, its publishers CG. P. Putnam Sonsj and those of the Commanding Gflicer of this ship, that you may place thesewords among your mementos of your cruise aboard the USS TARAWA. - ' For two dragging weeks the crowded triinsportsfhad been Zig-zagging through the blue waters of the South Pacific, and for the Marines aboard it hadlbeen two weeks of weary monotony. They were headed for one of the bloodiest battles in Marine Corps history, but they did not know that then. They did not even know where they were going. the end of these two weeks, on November 14 1943, they found out.. t '4Tarawa, . . . The Marines rolled the strange name off their tongues and repeated it to each other. In theiriwildest,speculations, none had ever said the name Tarawa. J Six days la'ter the first assaultiwas landed. Nine days later the bloody battle was history. If ou want to place the small solitude of Tarawa, start from San Francisco, go roughly two thousand Y nautical miles toward the southwest and youlll be at Pearl Harbor, or Oahu . . . travel three thousand more nautical miles along the general route and you reach, where they straddle the Equator, the Gilbert Islands. One of them, a few degrees Ifiiyou looked down on it from the air, the atoll would make you think of a lopsided, skinny V. The longer arm of this V, which stretches toward the north, covers eighteen miles, while the bottom arm runs west for twelve. north of the line, is the atoll of Tarawa. A chain of low-lying coral islands separated by sand channels are fordable at low water. Completely hl ' ofthisVisa surrounding the seaward side of the atoll is a broad reef. Within the s e tering arm , lagoon, entered through' one small gap in the barrier reef. . Betiolflids at'Tarawa's southwestern end. It is somewhat smaller than New York City's Central Bark. With a length of two it narrows down to a fraction. and a half miles, it is only eight hundred yards across at its widest, and .

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XA X X if . -NX 1 ig F Qsgsw . xSifg1Q3Q+ an :wma g ifXNx-if-Niiap 2 5XN-QXXVQX-qsx -N X 5 ff x 1Q:0fxQXx::sss.':X a ' Tarawa Band at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba CT6Zll,.Y Dance, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

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Admiral Hargf W. Hill, USN